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Soap and Soccer! Global Hand Washing Day Tournament

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GOALS’ 3rd annual Global Hand Washing Day soccer tournament was a huge success this year! It was a day-long event filled with food, music, dancing, soccer, prizes, and, of course, plenty of soap and hand washing.

During the matches, a volunteer read hygiene messages, in between excited cries of “GOOOOAAAL!” and cheers from the gathered crowd. In between matches, members of a girls’ team presented a hand washing dance set to music from Beyonce. They had been practicing their routine after hygiene-promotion lessons on the field in the weeks before the tournament.

125 youth played soccer and an estimated 300 people from the general public were in attendance.

GOALS scholarship and youth service committee, the Dream Team helped out with everything that needed to be done, from hanging posters to distributing soap to the crowd. After lunch, they circulated the field with a trash bag to make sure no litter was left behind.

Amongst the many highlights of the day was a hand washing relay race for the younger kids. With huge grins and full of intention, they ran across the field, washed their hands, and ran back as fast as they could.

Thanks to UNICEF, every single one of our soccer players received a bar of soap, so they could literally take home the message they learnt at the tournament.

GOALS’ successful Global Hand Washing Day tournament once again proves that with a soccer ball and a little push from behind, anything is possible.

For a full report, or to learn how GOALS uses soccer to change lives in Haiti every day, please visit http://goalshaiti.org